Brothers and Aunts, fathers and mothers
by SatAMNerd15
Summary: After a horrific accident, Tails is left with amnesia and no knowledge of Knothole or any of the people he used to care about. Can the others rebuild the realtionship they used to share? - disowned for now


Brothers and Aunts, Fathers and Mothers.

Tails had to strain himself to stop himself from laughing with excitement as Sonic sped away from what had, until a few short moments and one huge explosion ago, been Robotnik's largest Swat bots factory. Even though he was hidden away inside Sonic's backpack Tails felt as though he could feel Sonic's trademark grin shining over him.

Much to Tails' continual disappointment Sally always forbade him to go with the freedom fighters on missions to Robotropolis. As far back as Tails could remember he had always loved to hear Sonic talk about all the adventured he had been on, all the lives he had saved and all the Swat bots he had wrecked and although Sally knew how much Tails needed a hero in these hard times she had to admit that she didn't like how fuelled Tails' desire to enter the war on Robotnik was becoming.

Of course, this meant that Tails was almost fully confined to Knothole village. Sally had always promised him that she would let him join the freedom fighters when he was old enough but through sheer naivety Tails kept telling himself that Sonic wanted to keep the Swat bots all for himself.

And so, whenever Tails got the opportunity he would join the freedom fighters on their missions, without them knowing a thing. This usually meant hiding in Sonic's back pack because of two things: Sonic was a lot softer than Sally when it came to punishing the young fox and since Tails was sued to riding in the back pack he new how to keep still - and hidden inside of it.

Tails looked down and saw his wristwatch beeping, which meant an incoming message from Rotor.

An advantage of being super intelligent at Tails' age was that Rotor was happy to let Tails 'play' with the freedom fighter's equipment. Tails couldn't help but let out a small giggle as he thought of what Rotor's face would look like if he ever found out that Tails had been hacking into the freedom fighter's communications so that he could follow mission progress.

"_Come in Sonic. We saw that blast from Knothole! Nice job!"_

Tails could hear Sonic laughing. He could tell that Sonic would go looking for Tails as soon as he got back to Knothole to tell him all about the mission.

"What did you expect Rote? I'll bet ol' Buttnik's gonna be mad as hell when he sees what I did to his factory!"  
Tails couldn't help but dwell on Sonic's words. He was, after all, only ten years old and still full of innocence. He would have to ask Sonic about his choice of language the next time he got the chance.

"I'll bet he will, Sonic. Just one thing though:"

"What is it Rote?"

Tails detected a hint of uncertainty in Rotor's voice, as if he was worried about breaking a rule by taking the conversation any further.

"Well, I've reached a breakthrough for this invention I've been working on but I need a few more parts."

Tails' mind began to wonder as he thought of all the amazing things Rotor had built over the years. He himself was beginning to discover a knack for mechanics and he hoped that some day soon he would be able to ask the Walrus for some of his secrets.

"What kinda parts?"

"Nothing special, I just need a sample of some Swat bot armour."

Tails felt Sonic skidding to a halt, almost sending joshed fox kit flying out of the backpack.

"No problem Rote. Just tell Sal to go ahead and put Tails to bed since this is gonna add about ten minutes onto the ol' escape plan. See ya back at Knothole!"

Tails heart froze. If Sally went looking for him and couldn't find him he'd be in deep trouble; especially if she ever found out just how often he had been venturing outside of Knothole's borders.

"Uh – oh."

Suddenly, Tails was flung against the side of the back pack as Sonic sped off again, heading for the junk yards just outside of Robotropolis.

Robotnik had often commented on Robotropolis as a 'beautifully polluted city' and it was clear why. The pollution from his numerous factories was so vast, so substantial that the very sun was blocked out by the discoloured clouds of poisonous gas.

The younger residents of Knothole, at least those who had had the 'luck' as they would call it to get close to Robotropolis without being detected, found that the most unattractive aspect of the city were the miles of landfill the littered the outside.

Though Mobotropolis had been a city that was completely in touch with nature and, at the same time, driven by undisruptive technology Robotnik had scarcely any regard for the well being of Mobius as long as he was the one who ruled over it and so all of the waste that was produced by Robotropolis, that couldn't be incinerated, was dumped outside the city where it slowly decomposed, feeding the Great forest as if to say, 'The city is with you Freedom fighters'.

The foul stench of the landfills filled Tails' nostrils as Sonic sped towards it. The only way he managed to stop himself from coughing out loud and giving away his hiding place was by telling himself repeatedly, 'Sonic's gonna be in and out of there in a jiffy.'

Sonic stopped a few meters into the landfill and began to search for any of the numerous Swat bots he had personally dismantled over the years. Just as Tails was about to vomit inside the backpack, he heard Sonic yelling with glee.

"Found it! Time to juice back to Knotho…."

All of a sudden, Tails' wrist watch beeped into life once more.

"_Come in Sonic! This is Sally! You have to get back to Knothole now! Tails is missing!"_

The game was up – and Tails knew it. He had hoped that Sonic would be quick enough to get him back to Knothole with enough time to sneak into his hut and dive under his covers before Sally entered the hut, as she always did, to say goodnight but he hadn't. And now, people would start looking for him. There was no way he'd be able to talk his way out of this one.

"Roger that Sal! I'm on my way!"

"_Hold on a second Sonic, I can hear something else on the line. It sounds like……. Crying?"_

Tails felt his heart beating against his ribs as if it was trying to escape from his chest. The one thing he had never considered was that locking onto the communications frequency would mean people on the other side being able to use the hole in the system to hear him as well as he could hear them; and for the last few seconds he had been crying his eyes out in fear of getting caught.

"Crying? Who could that be?"

"_I'm not sure Sonic, but it sounded familiar. Just get back here as fast as you can.__ Rotor will try to get a lock on that signal while the rest of us look for Tai…"_

"HALT FREEDOM FIGHTER! SURRENDER AT ONCE!"

Tails began to shiver with a mixture of fear and anticipation. He could hear the cold, hard metal of the Swat bot's feet against the landfill coming towards Sonic; surrounding Sonic, but at the same time he knew that the robots didn't have a chance and as always, he loved to be there when his hero was showing off.

"Hold that thought Sal! Power ring time!"

Tails had no time to react as Sonic reached into the backpack and grabbed the young fox by the tails, expecting a power ring to be in his place. Before Tails could yell for Sonic to look out, before the hedgehog could begin to wonder why two large, furry Tails were resting in his backpack, before Sally could radio Sonic saying that she had found the source of the unknown signal, everything became a blur.

Without thinking, Tails grabbed the power ring sitting beside his and thrust it into Sonic's hand. All the fox could hear were the sounds of metal being smashed and torn apart, along with the trademark 'whoosh' that accompanied the use of one of Sonic's power rings.

The fox cub tried desperately to hold on to the sides of the back pack as Sonic accelerated. Somehow, the hedgehog was going faster than Tails had ever seen him go before and before long Tails felt that he couldn't keep his grip on the hard fabric much longer.

"SONNNNNICCCCC!"

Then, suddenly, there was silence. Everything around Tails seemed to freeze for a split second and then, it was if he was falling to the centre of the planet. There was a huge boom and then he was flung face first into the side of the backpack – Sonic had broken the sound barrier.

Tails had no idea where he was going and he didn't care. All he could think about was the immense pain he felt as his face was pushed harder and harder into the rough leather fabric of the backpack by Sonic's immense speed. He couldn't blink, he couldn't open his mouth to scream or even breathe.

"Almost there!" he heard Sonic yell.

Suddenly, Sonic dug his heels into the ground, skidding to a halt as he reached the forest. Before he came to a complete stop he felt the straps keeping the lid of his backpack down tear off.

The last thing Tails saw was a huge oak tree on the edge of the forest growing bigger and bigger as flew towards it. He felt a blinding pain on the back of his head and then, nothing.

Sally pressed her face into her hands as she wept.

She, Sonic, Bunnie and Antoine were sitting outside the infirmary. Sonic had his arm around the distressed squirrel's shoulder, completely silent, as Bunnie tried to console the princess through her own tears.

"He'll be fine Sally – girl. Rotor knows what he's doin."

Sally looked up at her best friend, her eyes completely bloodshot and her fur soaked through, and tried as hard as she could to form some kind of smile, but as she thought of how Tails had looked when he had been brought back to Knothole she found herself flooding her hands with more tears.

It had taken a few seconds for Sonic to figure out what had happened when he stopped and it was at that point that he saw Tails at the foot of the oak tree, soaked from head to foot in blood.

Almost instinctively, he ran up to the cub rested his head on his already mangled back pack. His body had felt so fragile, as if his bones were completely shattered.

"Tails! Wake up Big guy!"

The hedgehog had called out to the young fox for what seemed like hours before Sally and Rotor had found him, at which point the hedgehog felt as if he was going to go mad with grief. Tails had been there with him, he was seriously hurt and he couldn't do anything about it. He silently cursed himself as he thought of his own feebleness and continued to stare, unblinkingly, at the wall of the waiting room.

The four of them had been waiting outside for three and half hours while Rotor worked tirelessly to do what he could for the fox. To some extent, Sonic's distressful assumptions had contained elements of truth as several of the young fox's bones were broken and he had sustained a powerful blow to the head.

By the time that the fox had been brought to the infirmary he had lost a dangerous amount of blood and no matter what Rotor and Sally had tried to do to stop the bleeding or reanimate the fox, nothing had worked. Rotor's expression had been one of sheer hopelessness as he had taken the fox into the infirmary with two assistants.

Antoine was sitting at the other end of the row of seats, beside Bunnie. He cared for Tails as all the freedom fighters did and even he would have risked a trip to the robotisizer to help the young fox, but it was Sally that he was truly worried about. He had known Rotor as long as he could remember and was confident in his medical abilities, but he felt that no amount of medicine, bandages or even time would be able to mend Sally's grief if the walrus failed to save Tails' life.

"Ma Princess, per'aps it would be better if you got ze sleep yes? You are to be looking, ow you say, in ze pit of air?"

Bunnie shook her head and sighed at Antoine's grammar. No matter how many times he had been corrected for his pronunciation growing up he had always stuck to his native accent, thinking himself as the only one who wished to maintain the standards set by the royal court. Still, Antoine's heart had always been in the right place.

"Ya mean a pit o' despair, Sugar. And Ah think he may just have a point Sally – girl. Ya'll need your energy when the little guy wakes up and needs a hug from his Aunt Sally."

Sally shook her head violently, sending her tears flying at her friends.

"There's no way I'm leaving him here by himself! He needs me!"

Bunnie looked at Sally and then at Sonic, still not showing any emotion whatsoever as Sally wrapped her arms around him and began crying into his blue fur.

"What about Sugar hog? He can stay here and ya can get some rest."

Bunnie had hoped that her friend would see sense and take her up on her offer, but it was clear that Sally had no intention of leaving.

Suddenly, Sonic spoke up.

"You two go. Come back in a few hours and if we're still here then we'll leave."

"But Sonique, how are you to be…."

Sonic didn't even look at Antoine as he addressed the hedgehog. Had it been any other day apart from this, Antoine would have yelled at Sonic to show more manners in front of the Princess of Mobotropolis, but in the end he thought it best to leave the hedgehog alone and turned to leave the infirmary.

Bunnie looked back and saw Antoine shut the door, before turning to Sonic and Sally, her own eyes beginning to fill with tears.

"But Sugar – hog, Ah wanna see him safe as well but…."

Sally slid herself away from Sonic and stood up. She turned to Bunnie, wiping away her tears as best she could.

"Don't worry Bunnie, we'll be fine. Just come back in a few hours."

Sally gave her old friend a brief, reassuring smile, before she began pacing in front of the infirmary door. Bunnie took one last look at Sonic, who was staring blankly at the wall, and then followed Antoine out of the door.

Another hour passed and there was still no word from Rotor about Tails' condition. Sonic was still staring at the blank wall, although the new look of concentration on his face said that he was thinking about the fox cub and cursing himself for what had happened.

Sally had fallen asleep on one of the benches and from the looks of things, she was having a nightmare.

She was slowly twitching and rolling over in her sleep as a child often does on a dark, thunderous night. From time to time, Sonic would hear her whimpering in her sleep.

"No…. no, don't take him….. Let him go…… You can't have him….. I need him…."

Nobody would have known from the sternness of Sonic's expression and the anguish of Sally's slumber that they were both thinking of the same night; when Tails had first been brought to Knothole.

They were both six years old. Sally was slightly taller than the other children of Knothole, sitting on the floor with Bunnie playing with their dolls.

Sally could picture the dolls perfectly. Her own was a young sheep, dressed in simple clothing: a long brown dress with knitted shoes and had long black hair. Bunnie's however, was a bright and colourful bird dressed in royal clothing. Sally had never cared for anything beyond the simplicity of Knothole as a child, while Bunnie had always been one to admire women in fine clothing.

"Sally girl?" Bunnie said with a high, slightly babyish voice.

"Yeah Bunnie?"

"D'ya think Sonic's gonna be back soon? Ah think Wosie's bin lookin for him."

Sonic had left earlier that morning, as he usually did, to explore the forest. Rosie and Julayla had never minded this as they knew how important a sense of curiosity could be for a child, but Sally knew that soon they would start to wonder why the hedgehog hadn't returned to Knothole village yet. After all, soon it would be his bed time.

Suddenly, the door to Sally and Bunnie's hut flung open, revealing a somewhat short, skinny blue hedgehog carrying what looked like a brick wrapped in torn cloth.

"Ewwww! Sonic, where'd you get that thing? It looks disgusting!"  
Without saying anything, Sonic ran to Sally's bed and pulled off her quilt, before wrapping it around whatever he had in his arms. Sally was about to protest, when she heard hushed whimpering emanating from the bundle in Sonic's arms.

"Sonic, what is that thing?"

Sonic motioned for the two of them to come forwards and look for themselves, still not saying anything. As they approached he put a free hand up, extended his finger and placed it on his lips.

"Shhhhhhh."

As discreetly as they could, Sally and Bunnie stopped either side of Sonic and looked down at what he was holding.

There, shivering from the cold was a baby fox. Bunnie gasped when she saw it, but Sally quickly took off her jacket and wrapped it around the infant fox's blankets.

"Sonic, where'd you find it?"

Sally and Bunnie began to notice that Sonic too was shivering horribly. After all, it was a freezing cold November night and the village had been bombarded with heavy rainfall for the past week. Sonic had obviously taken off his own coat to help the cub.

"I f-found him in the w-woods b-by some rubble." Sonic said, with a high pitched version of his teenage voice. "A-a-and he's a he, n-not a 'it'"

"Sonic hedgehog? Is that you?"

The three children turned and saw Rosie, their nanny, walking into the hut, covered by a raincoat. Without thinking of how much trouble he might be in, Sonic had quickly thrust the child into Rosie's arms.

"Please Rosie, I think he's sick! He's shivering!"

From the tears in the young hedgehog's eyes, Rosie could see that now was not the time to point fingers or dish out punishments. She simply took Sonic's hand and led him out of the hut; back into the rain, with the crying infant cradled in her other arm.

Bunnie and Sally had waited silently in their hut for hours, wondering about Sonic and the young fox. Neither of them had seen any other kids apart from those who inhabited Knothole since they had had to flee Mobotropolis and as the situation began to sink in, they thought of what having a baby in the village would do to their daily life.

"He was super cute, didn't ya think so Sally girl? Ah'll bet he's small enough for some of 'em dolls clothes."

"I know Bunnie!" Sally said with an excited grin, "And I'll bet he needs a name too. What do think we should call him?"

"His name's Miles or it was."

The two girls looked up and saw Julayla standing in their doorway. She motioned for the two girls to come forwards with her hands and then whispered into their ears.

"I'm afraid the child passed away a few minutes ago. Sonic is very distressed, but I think he needs his friends more than anything."  
The two of them walked through the rain towards Rosie's hut, each holding one of Julayla's hands as they thought of the cub, lying motionless on a table with Sonic crying nearby.

It seemed as though the rain and the cold were nothing to them as the realisation dawned on them – a child had just lost its life and the grownups couldn't save him.

As they entered, they saw the cub lying motionless in Sonic' arms. The young hedgehog was trying desperately not to cry as he saw the two of them enter. After all, he had a reputation as 'the toughest hedgehog in the forest'. Sally and Bunnie sat down next to him and looked won at the cub. He looked so peaceful in Sonic's arms.

"Sonic, are you ok?"

"Why'd he have to die Sal?"

Sally realised that the hedgehog was expecting an answer; that he needed an answer.

"Well, I guess everyone has to go sometime."

Sally and the other freedom fighters had been toughened somewhat by their loss as children, which could often be seen as they were able to keep a firm posture in a lot of situations where normal children would have broken down and cried. Sally could see however, that Sonic no longer cared about looking tough as he began to cry his eyes out.

"But I was gonna take him running and I was gonna show him the best spots in the forest and I was gonna be there when he ate his first chilli dog and…"

"Mmmm."

Shocked, the three children looked down at the fox. The sudden sound they had heard couldn't have come from him, could it?

"You like chilli dogs?"

"Mmmmmmmmmm."

They could see the infant moving now: rolling around, licking his lips.

"Rosie!" Sonic shouted, "Julayla! He's ok!"

"He's ok…."

Sonic opened his eyes to the morning sunshine that shone in through the window. He shook his head and stood up, feeling an ache in his back from sitting on the bench all night long.

"Heh, must have dozed off."

"Sonic?"

Sonic turned and saw Rotor behind him, dressed in white medical coat. The walrus was slightly shorter than Sonic, and stout as his kind usually were. Still, for what he had lacked in athleticism, compared to Sonic and Sally at least, he made up for with his sharp intellect and vast knowledge.

From the look on Rotor's face, Sonic could tell that he had been right to put his faith in the walrus.

"You and Sally have been here all night Sonic. I just came out to check on you."  
Sonic stared over to the bench where Sally had fallen asleep and, sure enough, the squirrel was still tossing and turning from her dream.

"You might wanna wake her up Sonic. The operation went fine. Tails' body is a little messed up but apart from that he's completely alright."

Sonic's face lit up. He quickly shook Sally awake and then ran into the room before she had even fully opened her eyes.


End file.
